I’m always on the look out for means to earn aside from my laptop bag business and blogging. I thought about going back to the contact center industry after 2 years of absence, but I also wanted to explore those employment opportunities that allows one to work from home. I tried submitting my resume whenever I see information on article writing or social media-related jobs, but I only got a handful of interviews. I realized I’m doing something wrong, and that is sending the same resume I use for call center jobs. That prompted me to search for resume templates geared for this type of jobs.
I received compliments with my resume, with people saying that the format is unique; I take pride in that because it showed my creativity. I had quite an accomplishments and took positions with higher responsibilities. These are things that I love to list down so it would be highlighted. But because I’m technically targeting a different industry, my lists is somewhat outdated. I’m confident that I can improve my resume, but I still felt the need to search the internet. True enough, I discovered several ideas from the resume templates that I found. Let me share some of those.
- Format your resume to target the position you’re applying for. By highlighting skills and accomplishments that are relevant to the job requirements, hiring managers are likely to give your resume a second look. In my case, I had to downplay my call center industry experience but highlighted leadership roles and projects that I took on. like being in charge of the company newsletter. Of course, I added more details on my other activities like blogging, paid posts, short-term content writing projects and my business.
- Use industry-relevant keywords. I removed call center jargon because they’re not relevant to the job I’m applying for. As I targeted jobs related to social media and article writing, I used SEO, Facebook, Twitter and other keywords. Those words create a connection to the one reviewing the resume, prompting your application to be considered to the next process.
- Keep it short and simple. I had several years of work experience, but only a fraction of that is related to the job. I struggled keeping it short, but the resume templates I used helped me accomplish my goal. Omitting verbose statements and not-so-important sections of my old resume did the trick in reaching a two-page resume. A short resume will help the recruiter go through the entire document at a short amount of time. I used to have a 4-page resume. I realized that with a lot of people competing to get a job, recruiters will have to sift through hundreds or eve thousands of resumes. My old copy will definitely be filed under “for reference” or worst, go to the trash bin.
- Use an easy-to-read format. I used a simple font, setting the heading for each section in bold so that the reader will be able to easily find the information needed for a quick scan. I used two fonts — Arial for headings and Times New Roman for the body — these fonts look clean, professional and easy to read, saving the reader time in reviewing more applications.
- Ensure that there are no grammatical and spelling errors. Whether applying for a writing job or not, I make sure that my resume is free from errors, not only with grammar or spelling, but on proper sentence construction and formatting. Communication skills is very important in the business world, and if we cannot prove that we don’t have that skill, then the recruiter will move to the next applicant.
The changes I made on my resume were definitely helpful. Last month, I got a part-time gig doing some article writing and SEO stuff. Early this week, I became a part of another team where I will be doing some social media work. Of course, I went through the entire hiring process, including interviews. But I got them after I updated my resume based on the ideas I collated from the resume templates I found on the web. Now I have additional sources of income; mission accomplished!
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